The Use of Furfural in Organic Synthesis

The over-dependent of researchers on petroleum products have contributed to the expensive nature of petroleum fractions and the production of chemicals that are not friendly to the environment. Furfural is a renewable heteroaromatic compound obtained from agricultural residue. It is an alternative natural resource and major economic sustenance for non-petroleum producing countries. 1-((2-carbamoylguanidino)(furan-2-ylmethyl)urea was synthesized by coupling purified furfural with urea, in the presence of sodium hydroxide (2ml, 20%) at a temperature of 70C and it served as an intermediate in the synthesis 1,1-bis(2-Carbamoylguanidino)furan-2-ylmethane.. The compounds synthesized in this study were characterized using GC-MS, IR, 1H-NMR, and 13C-NMR. Further structural elucidation was carried out using 1H-1H COSY, HSQC, and DEPT. The structures obtained from spectroscopic data analysis corresponded to the predicted spectra generated from ChemBioDraw software of the compound synthesized. The product synthesized from this study and the method employed would afford feedstock for the pharmaceutical and chemical industries.